When the plan for a new Costco chicken-processing plant in Fremont, Nebraska, was announced in 2016, it drew angry local protests. Now large-scale chicken farms that will supply the plant are popping up across the state, causing a new round of protests amid concerns about the environmental and health effects of welcoming dozens of new industrial chicken farms to the state.
The plant, which is slated to open in September 2019, is expected to eventually process more than 2 million chickens each week, sourced from an intermediary called Lincoln Premium Poultry. When plans for the plant were first made public, it was hugely controversial among residents of the small town. Critics included environmentalists worried about an influx of industrial farming, as well as anti-immigrant locals angered that the plant could attract foreign workers.
Now that the plant is moving ahead, about 125 farmers in 14 counties across the state are expected to begin raising chickens for it. So far about 40 operations have been approved. Some of them will house as many as 380,000 chickens at a time, drawing concern from neighbors about air pollution, water runoff, diminished quality of life, and reduced property values. Several counties are embroiled in debate about whether to welcome or deny these new mega-farms.
“This is a nice quiet neighborhood. Nice people. Everybody gets along,” said Ruth June, a Lancaster County resident, to NET Nebraska. “Now we’re going to be shut up in our houses because we can’t stand the smell outside?”